This is the story (or bullet points) of my Christmas holiday. A holiday where I went to Swedish Lapland or somewhere around there (basically pretty far north of the equator...?).

But before we get to what happened on the holiday (given it hasn't happened yet), here is my take of what might happen, as written on the 26th of November (I know that isn’t the date I am posting this, that is the date when I had the thoughts I think below). Let’s call this “the before” and then when I am back from holiday I will write another part, that one we will probably call “the after[math]” (how's that for joke set up?!).

Coming from New Zealand you get used to Christmas days on the beach, in the sun, wearing shorts and jandals (which Google tells me is spelled wrong). You get used to the sun rising early and setting late. You get used to warm temperatures and cold beverages. Basically you get used to the best things in life.

So maybe it is natural when living away from New Zealand to want to try something else, a white Christmas.

This is, I assume, why we decided to head to Northern[middle] Sweden for Christmas. At first this sounds like a great idea - snow for Christmas! The Northern Lights! Fighting, and then eating, Mooses (Moosi?)!But then when you start thinking about it a couple of things jump out at you:

In Sweden in late December it is going to be quite cold

The further North you go in December, the less sunlight you get. It is probably going to be dark the whole time?

So, my Christmas plans are to go to Sweden and stay in a cold dark house with a bunch of friends. Stopmeifyouhaveheardthis one before?

Actually, thinking about it some more, I will probably be trying to do some writing while there, so maybe it is just like The Shining, but in a smaller house and with more people.

So, either one day I come back and finish this blog post with what actually happened in Sweden, or the police will find this half written post while searching for evidence to understand why a group of friends went crazy in a remote cabin in Sweden over Christmas.

Merry Christmas everyone!

I don't know how to apply credit to an image but the original is linked. I imagine they don't endorse my additions.

Legal disclaimer: I have no intention of harming anyone physically or otherwise in Sweden, and I believe that no one else on the trip does either. This is all just a joke. Everything is fine. Please don’t put me on some kind of list. Really this was all just set up to a shitty Moose joke and to link all those movies that seem to set out similar situations to what we are doing.